Cherry Berry Chia Jam

This Cherry Berry Chia Seed Jam is a simple way to enjoy homemade fruit jam without the gelatin. You just need fruit and chia seeds!

I’ve been itching for chia seed week to start, pretty much since the Tropical Chia Parfait from a hot minute ago. Because if Chia Pets were the entertainment of childhood, then the ultra-absorbent ability for chia seeds to thicken anything is the entertainment of present day Sarah. Oh and also sprouting chia seeds. Coming home from work and seeing a new micro-forest of chia babies. That too. I’m not difficult to entertain.

So unsurprisingly, this Cherry Berry Chia Jam made for one party-starting Saturday evening. I took two routes, a cooked route and a raw route. The raw route actually came first because, well, that’s less steps between now and jam. But I was curious how a cooked fruit jam would compare. And they actually were pretty different in taste.

The raw tasted just like strawberries + cherries, fresh and fruity with an insy bit of sour. I ran the fruit through a food processor for the raw version, which made for a less chunky jam. The google machine tells me that this makes it a jelly. Whatever.

The cooked jam had a deeper, sweeter flavor, closer to the flavors you might get in a baked fruit pie. Cooking also broke down the fruits to where they were just mushy enough to not need a run through the food processor and just chunky enough to have some tasty fruit chunks intact.

The winner? Cooked. But it’s still good raw if you don’t have time or are on the raw diet or don’t have electricity or whatever. PS: Does anyone know how to pit cherries? In a manner that doesn’t leave your countertop looking like a cherry murder crime scene?